Commentary: Who’s to say when they’ll go in for Lutheran, or why?

PEORIA — It doesn’t take an X’s and O’s expert, or a scientist or psychologist, to tell you that it’s risky business for a team to live by the 3-point shot as much as Lutheran did this year.

While the reward was worth the risk for 33 games, this weekend at the Class 3A state tournament, the risk did not pay off.

But who can blame the Crusaders for trying. Lutheran entered the two-day state tournament with 294 field goals from 3-point range, tops in the state in any class. But while they lived by them up until this point, they died by them in the last two games — both losses that led to their fourth-place finish Saturday.

“It’s not expected for us to come out and shoot this bad,” senior leader Thomas Kopelman said. “But hey, sometimes it happens.”

While Lincoln, the first team to take down the Crusaders this week, passed them by finishing the season with 308 3-pointers (fourth all-time in IHSA history, bumping Lutheran’s 305 to fifth), the Crusaders constantly made statements this season with their 3-point prowess.

“This is a special team; I’ve told you that all along,” Lutheran head coach Tom Guse said. “I have to give them free reign a lot of times. They just keep nailing them.”

So coming into the state tournament, who could blame them for the launch party of 3s.

— You can’t blame the coach for drawing up plays designed to get an open 3. Guse watched his team drain them at a better than 41 percent clip during the regular season, and they scorched the nets in the DeKalb Supersectional, sinking eight of their first 11, and 12-for-27 overall.

— It’s hard to blame the point guard, senior Kendall Lawson. He dished it out to his sharpshooters every chance he got and they rewarded his generosity.

— And you certainly can’t blame the shooters themselves. When your coach, the fans, and those little voices in your head are all yelling for you to let it fly, let it fly you must.

“We’ve been living on the 3s this year, but not today. We kind of beat ourselves out there,” said Lawson, who had seven points, five rebounds and five assists Saturday. “We’ve seen pressure like that all year. … But this is the big stage, and once a team gets that thing going like that, it’s hard to calm them down.”

Lutheran made 11 of their 37 threes in the two-game losing streak, just 29.7 percent.

“We’ve shot the ball great all season,” Guse said, “but tonight they just weren’t falling as much as they normally do.”

What made this weekend different was that everybody was cold. During the regular season, they could almost always fall back on one of their many 3-point shooters. Kopelman finished with 129, Joe Kellen had 84 and Lawson had 49. Even Ryan Dolan knocked down 17 with injuries holding him to just eight regular-season games.

This weekend, Kopelman (7-for-18) and Lawson (2-for-4), the only two key players who are seniors, were the lone Crusaders making their 3s with any consistency. The rest of the team went 2-for-15.

“Obviously I’m upset about these two losses, but the hardest part is knowing this is the end to my career here, and it didn’t end the way I wanted,” said Kopelman, who will suit up for Division II Minnesota State-Mankato next year. “I’m excited about the future, but it’s hard to fathom that this is the end.”

And while the timing for the cold stretch wasn’t the best, the team still left Peoria’s Civic Center arena with their heads up.

“I’m extremely proud of these guys,” Guse said. “I know our guys aren’t happy right this minute. But, we made it to Peoria, and the weekend that we had, we maybe didn’t play our best, A-plus basketball, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort.

“And there’s, I don’t know how many teams, that would have loved to have been our team on this court this weekend.”